Category Archives: Eight Facets Of A Healthy Family Culture

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We are at the last of the eight facets of a healthy family culture! Writing about the impact that the state of intimate relationships in a household can be a tricky proposition for many reasons, and one I hesitated writing about until the end.

First of all, I don’t want those in families led by a single adult to feel not included or to feel that a single family household is somehow sub-par. I also know from over the years that different marriages and partnerships have different feels to them, and how different couples define “a good marriage” seems to vary, but somehow they work, so giving “advice” about this seems to be difficult at best.

However, what I have seen over the years is that when the intimate relationships within the household are not working well or are strained, it affects family culture, it can really affect the children, and so I did want to mention this as part of the foundation of healthy family life.

Many sources say it is actually not conflict that diminishes marriages, but rather lack of kindness, lack of patience and tolerance and a general lack of sense of love or being loved.

John M. Gottman, in the book “The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work”, asserts that happy marriages are based upon Continue reading →

How we deal with conflict in a family is so important as it really sets the tone for the energy and mood of the house. Is the tone of the home that things are important, but the moments are there for teaching and connection? Or is the tone of the home that things are important, but in a stressful way, and the energy and tone of the home is punishing and threatening?

I think how we deal with conflict comes down to two main things: how we set boundaries and how we communicate. Continue reading →

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“The cultivation of this universal gratitude toward the world is of paramount importance. It does not always need to be in one’s consciousness, but may simply live in the background of the feeling life, so that, at the end of a strenuous day, one can experience gratitude, for example, when entering a beautiful meadow full of flowers……And if we only act properly in front of the children, a corresponding increase in gratitude will develop within them for all that comes to them from the people living around them, from the way they speak or smile, or the way such people treat them.” Rudolf Steiner from “A Child’s Changing Consciousness as the basis of pedagogical practice” –

I have always loved this idea that the concept of gratitude is planted within the first seven years of life as this seed that later grows into how we love people and the world, and then how we have a duty toward people and the world as an outgrowth of gratitude and love. That, to me, is one of the true pathways and one of the ultimate goals of education and parenting inspired by Rudolf Steiner.

We are jumping back into our series on the eight facets of a healthy family culture. These facets, along with the inner development of the parent and a spiritual/religious life, really form a backbone and foundation for parenting and for homeschooling. We have peeked at rhythm and sleep/rest and today we are ready to peek at the polar opposite of sleep/rest in work and play. Continue reading →

Have you ever felt weary? Maybe it is the rainy weather and the lack of sunshine. Maybe it is weariness from being emotionally fatigued. I think we can all look back on these times and think about how inviting rest was for us.

Small children take in sense impressions all day long, without any kind of filter on those impressions. They also tend to go “full force” in their work and play without a good ability to balance these inward and outward forces. And lastly, small children under the age of 9 really have a difficult time balancing their excesses of emotion, of bringing their emotional and feeling life being into balance. Rhythm is strength for them, and for the brief reasons mentioned above, sleep and rest are vitally important for small children.

One thing that forms the basis of health is stillness. Stillness is the basis for nearly all spiritual traditions around the world. In my own tradition of Christianity, the Early Church Fathers discussed stillness, prayer, love, and self-control. Stillness is also the basis for wonder and awe which leads to a sense of goodness in the small child, this idea that the world is a good place, which is a foundation of health. When we have consistent sleep and rest times for the whole family, I think we convey to children that being still is valued. That resting is okay. That having an unhurried pace is okay.

In this age of information overload and the “need” to respond to things “right now, hurry, hurry and respond and don’t think first” I think through rest and sleep we are giving our children the foundation to be able to say as adults, “That is interesting. Please let me think about it and I will respond to you in a bit.” We are giving our children the ability to find the stillness to connect with themselves, with the natural world and with the spiritual world. We are giving them the tools for health. Continue reading →

Well, here we get down into the nitty-gritty: how we craft a rhythm to take care of the THINGS in our home. All things require care, require cleaning, require maintenance. And here is my top secret thought:

This is often what can make or break homeschooling. It can also make or break how peaceful a mother feels…(not that one cannot have a wonderfully clean home and still have a whole bunch of sadness or tension in it!) However, I think in general, if mama is completely stressed and overwhelmed by her environment, and has to homeschool on top of total care of the home with no one helping in the form of the family working together, then mama may burn out. If life cannot be brought under some bit of control in order to not have the Mount Rushmore of Laundry, things clean, the environment uncluttered to the point where mama does not feel nuts….then homeschool is that much harder to get done.

At least that’s how it is in my home. And I think this is how many women function. We all know people before things, but at the same time, if one is home all day long and every flat surface is piled high with things, every drawer and closet is bursting, the laundry and dishes are piled up…..

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The Parenting Passageway

Welcome to The Parenting Passageway

A passageway, as one would guess, is a conduit to the next thing: a way to allow movement from one place, condition or stage to the next. This blog is entitled “The Parenting Passageway” as it is intended to help support and encourage parents in peaceful parenting for our hectic world. Thank you for reading and many blessings to you

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